Counter-Strike: Global Offensive preview - we play the new Arsenal mode

The old-school shooter gets a face lift

It’s the return of the king of online first-person shooters. Bringing back familiar maps like Dusk and Office, Counter-Strike: Global Offensive pits terrorist and counter-terrorist players against each other in the recognizable demolition and hostage modes while adding several new hybrid gameplay modes and complimentary maps.

Who is the developer?

Valve and Hidden Path Entertainment

How does it look?

It looks like Counter-Strike, only with better textures, better animations, and a whole lot more polygons. The Source engine has been given a bit of an upgrade. While it’s not necessarily the most beautiful looking FPS we’ve seen, the facelift for this old boy makes it look at almost a decade younger.

Global Offensive will have reworked versions of the traditional maps but the developers have added several new maps to compliment the fast-paced, close-quarters action needed for the fresh modes. We saw one of the small scale maps built to accommodate shorter ranged weapons like sub-machine guns and shotguns called “Lake” – an outdoor map with a lakeside cabin housing a bomb placement point

How does it play?

For better or for worse, it plays like the 12 year old Counter-Strike except it uses an Xbox 360 controller. Typically, player teams face off in standard defend or attack scenarios when players purchase weapons before dropping into the fray, but we also had the chance to play the game’s new Arsenal Mode.

Arsenal plays off the mechanics of Gun Game but instead of starting players with the weakest weapons and rewarding them with better guns after each kill, it does just the opposite. Players start with the best weapons and get knocked down to lower tier weapons as kills rack up. Eventually, players at the top of the leaderboards will only be carrying combat knives into the gunfight.

When is it out?

Counter-Strike: Global Offensive is aiming for a Summer 2012 release. Be sure to check out our previous coverage right here.